Hey Gang,
Reaver won the "What have you done to prepare this month" contest so I sent him his price which was a MagPul AFG donated by StraitJacket, thanks for the donation buddy!
I also threw some goodies into the box for him so this is going to be a tutorial on how to use those goodies.
We are going to start with the Pinto Beans because they take the longest.
1) wash the beans, throw them in a colander and wash the dirt off of them, be on the look out for rocks and bad beans i.e. dark, shriveled or broken.
2) put beans in a 5qt. crock pot
3) fill crock pot to within 1"-1 1/2" of the top with water
4) (optional) add 14oz chopped up salt pork, 1lbs regular plain old bacon (none of that fancy smoked shit), a ham hock or a ham bone.
5) set that sucker on High and walk away for hours... like 8 hours
You should have enough water in the pot to get away with walking away, you don't want your beans to go dry. They will burn and man that really stinks up the house.
You wouldn't believe that three ingredients would add up to such a rich dish but it does. For the first batch of Pinto Beans I wouldn't recommend that you get crazy and try to add all kinds of funny stuff because in all my 30 years (I'm turning 30 this month) of making, eating and enjoying this dish I have only ever fucked it up by adding stuff to the pot.
Now that you got this pot of great beans what are you going to put on it?
Red Chile.. and yes I spelled that right!
I sent you a bag of what we call red chile pods. They are the start of so many great NM dishes and that bag will make about 2 quarts of Red Chile.
1) soak the pods in HOT water for an hour or two.
2) with a colander in the sink to catch the seeds and stems and the tap running you are going to pull the stem off of the pod, most of the seeds should come with it
3) split the chile open with your thumb under running water so you can wash out the remaining seeds, they don't blend well
You can save the seeds for next years garden too!
4) if the chile is getting too hot you can pull the veins out just don't scrap them with a knive because the flesh of the chile is pretty thin and will come off too.
5) pack those puppies into a blender and blend until your chile is nice and smooth
6) add hot water to thin to desired thickness, we like ours nice and thick but some folks like it thin. I've never understood that.
7) add plenty of nice garlic and a pinch of salt to taste.
add to cooked beans covered in cheddar cheese and enjoy!
Now you have one of the most basic staples of New Mexican cooking down. Beans go on the side of every plate and make a great meal on their own or wrapped up in a tortilla... with plenty of cheese and chile of course!
You can really do a lot with red chile. You can use it like ketchup on burgers and fries, spread it over the top of your breakfast eggs, thin it down and slow cook a cheap cut of pork in it to make a local favorite called Carne Adovada (it is the pulled pork of NM), spread it over tamales (which have Carne in them), top tostadas and soo much more. Hell I'll put it in everything but my corn flakes!
Let us know how it goes Reaver and what you think of it!
Good luck and good eats!
